Eleven projects developing new floating offshore wind technology will be awarded a total of £31 million in government money, together with private investment that will bring the total to £60 million.
The cash will further research and development in areas such as how turbines are moored to the seabed, undersea cabling and developing foundations.
Floating turbines can be deployed in deeper waters than conventional turbines and will allow wind farms to be situated in new areas around the UK coastline where wind strengths are at their highest and most productive.
Energy Minister Greg Hands said, “By stimulating development now through the Floating Offshore Wind Demonstration Programme, the costs of building and locating floating turbines in deep-water areas will come down faster, growing the UK supply chain and supporting the target in the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan of delivering 1GW of energy through floating offshore wind by 2030.”
Floating offshore wind has access to £24 million a year of ringfenced funding in the fourth allocation round of the Contracts for Difference scheme. Meanwhile the recent ScotWind leasing round brought forward plans for 2.6GW of floating projects in Scottish waters.
The recipients are:
• JDR Cables (Hartlepool) and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (Blyth): £1,606,711 for developing and testing electric cabling systems.
• Buoyant Production Technologies (Farnham) and the University of Southampton: £238,724 to demonstrate that a patented design can be used for supporting substation equipment connecting floating wind farms to the energy grid.
• AWC Technology (Aberdeen): £760,874 to develop an articulated wind turbine column designed to reduce construction, installation and maintenance costs.
• Reflex Marine (Aberdeen) the University of Exeter, Bridon Bekaert Ropes Group (Doncaster) and Wood Thilsted Partners (Godalming): £882,283 for a novel lightweight anchoring system.
• London Marine Consultants and the University of Plymouth: £264,924 to bring to market a mooring system which will simplify installation and enable simple disconnection when maintenance is required.
• Copenhagen Offshore Partners (Edinburgh), SSE Renewables (Belfast), Maersk Supply Service Subsea (London) and Bridon Bekaert Ropes Group (Doncaster): £9,656,980 for new mooring system technologies, cable protection, floating turbine base design and an advanced digital monitoring system.
• Marine Power Systems (Swansea): £3,466,083 for a floating foundation with a small footprint and integrated wave energy generator to improve power quality.
• Cerulean Winds (Guildford): £825,692 for integrated system between the mooring, floating foundation and wind turbine for deployment at an offshore oil and gas facility in the North Sea or West of Shetland.
• SenseWind (Cambridge), Geodis FF (Feltham), Xodus Group (Aberdeen) and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (Blyth): £10,000,000 for a project combining a compact floating foundation with a novel anchoring system and advanced monitoring technology that allows for maintenance to be planned and performed offshore. A 2MW or larger turbine will be demonstrated in UK waters.
• Aker Solutions (London): £690,454 for applying cable manufacturing techniques that simplify and cut the cost of offshore installation and developing a subsea substation design.
• Trivane Ltd (Newquay), London Marine Consultants, Keynvormorlift (Newquay) and Ledwood (Pembroke Dock): £3,268,058 for a trimaran mounting system for wind turbines.
Professor Deborah Greaves, director of the Supergen ORE Hub, said: “I am delighted that the Floating Offshore Wind Demonstration Programme will support new projects in key areas of research and innovation for the ORE sector. The new projects are well aligned with the Research Landscape of the Supergen ORE Hub and demonstrate the great benefit to the sector of academics and industry experts working closely together – utilising their combined knowledge and expertise – to advance the UK’s Net Zero Strategy.”
Further reading
ORE Supergen calls for proposals with £850k on offer. Read our interview with ORE’s Deborah Greaves